Hi everyone,

(Sorry if my post gets lengthy! And thank you to anyone that can address all my questions.)

My first post! I recently was referred to Miles Buzz from a different forum. I have been following many threads on here and trying to understand as much as possible. There is SO much information to take in. Everyone seems pretty helpful so I decided to make an account.

I'll try to give a little personal info about me so you can steer me in the right direction: I want to reap some benefits of credit card bonuses and frequent flyer miles but I don't know what route to take. I'm still in college and working on building up great credit. I have two credit cards that I charge 99% of my expenses to and pay in full each month. Recently, I also paid off a car loan. I think I have "stellar" credit, at least for my age. When I checked last, it was about 750. I know that opening new cards can make a temporary dent in my credit but I'm not worried about applying for 1, 2, or possibly 3 cards because I have no big purchases planned for the next year or two at least. I know many people will warn me against potentially damaging my credit but I really feel that I have started a great foundation (feel free to persuade me differently... I don't know everything!).

I have been traveling to Cancun for the past couple years and I also would like to get back to Germany. If I could earn up a free flight, that would be awesome. I don't fly often but, like I mentioned before, I make all my purchases on my credit cards.

Here are my questions thus far:

- I had previously opted-out of credit card offers because I was sick of them but now decided to opt in to see if I would be eligible for targeted offers. When should I expect the "junk mail" to start flowing in again? At my age/credit score/etc., should I even expect decent targeted offers?

- What type of card should I be looking for? I see that 50K mile offers are a good start. Frontier and Airtran are the two airlines that fly direct from MKE-CUN and Frontier has a credit card that I can get 35,000 miles for signing up and spending $750 in three months. That 35,000 gets me a free roundtrip flight from MKE-CUN. Is that worth it? What about striving for a ticket to Germany? Should I look into something like a Capital One Venture card or check out offers direct from Lufthansa?

- I see many people signing up for cards, getting the rewards, and then canceling the card before the annual fee comes due. How does this work? Do you keep the miles if you cancel the card? Use the miles before you cancel? Or somehow roll them together with points you have earned elsewhere?

- After reading threads on this forum, I found out about airline alliances. I understand what they are but how do I use those alliances to focus on particular credit card offers? Are certain miles "interchangeable" between airlines?

I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as time goes. (I wish there was a "Credit Card Churning for Idiots" guide! ) Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!